Wright to Obama: 'Coming after you'

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright said Monday that he will try to change national policy by “coming after” Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) if he is elected president.

The pastor also insisted Obama “didn’t denounce” him and “didn’t distance himself” from Wright’s controversial remarks, but “did what politicians do.”

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Wright implied Obama still agrees with him by saying: “He had to distance himself, because he's a politician, from what the media was saying I had said, which was [portrayed as] anti-American.”

Wright, who was Obama’s pastor for 20 years and performed his wedding, made the explosive comment during a chaotic question-and-answer session at the National Press Club in Washington, following the pastor’s remarks about the black church in America.

“I said to Barack Obama last year, ‘If you get elected, November the 5th I'm coming after you, because you'll be representing a government whose policies grind under people,’ Wright said.

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The minister was speaking as part of a tour that is drawing heavy news coverage and causing a huge headache for Obama’s presidential campaign.

Obama, seeking to distance himself from remarks by Wright that some have taken as anti-American, has emphasized that Wright has retired.

But Wright talks of their relationship in the present tense. “I'm a pastor; he's a member,” he said. “I'm not a ‘spiritual mentor.’ “

In the Democratic debate on April 16, Obama referred to Wright as “somebody who is associated with me that I have disowned,” then clarified that to say he had disowned the comments.

But Wright objected to a question saying Obama had denounced him.

“Whoever wrote that question doesn't read or watch the news,” Wright said. “He did not denounce me. He distanced himself from some of my remarks, like most of you, never having heard the sermon, all right? …

“He didn't distance himself. He had to distance himself, because he's a politician, from what the media was saying I had said, which was [portrayed as] anti-American. … He did, as I said, what politicians do.”